Most bizarre news!

A Thai Buddhist monk has refused to reattach his penis after he cut it off with a machete during meditation, Reuters reported.
The monk, 35, reportedly severed the organ because he had an erection and only allowed hospital doctors to dress the wound. He said he had renounced all earthly cares and had "abandoned everything", the hospital chief told Reuters.

The Bush

Many ppl think George Bush is quite ignorant of foreign affairs and really makes a big mess of the whole show. I just read this in a book:

"....George W. Bush had to apply for a passport after becoming president of the United States, so he could travel overseas."

Gosh, and he became president.....

DAPS 2006

If you are wondering what I've been busy with, I just presented a paper at DAPS 2006.

Wan, Y. K. and Ng, P. H., “Numerical Analysis of Close-In Blast Effects on Reinforced Concrete Columns”, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Design and Analysis of Protective Structures, pp. 343–351, 2006.

There's a new world somewhere

They played this song at my aunt's wedding when I was a kid. I'll always remember it because I was the page boy at that wedding, the cute little kid carrying that pillow with the rings! I've never really heard this song since then, perhaps only once or twice in church.
What's so special about this song is that it's a church song, and the "Someone" is supposed to be Jesus. But when played at a church wedding, it kinda refers to the husband/bride too! So there's actually something in it for everyone!
So why do I bring this up now? Well, it just came to mind when someone was talking to me about finding the right someone. I guess if I ever do find the right one, I'll have this song at my wedding ;) .....


There’s a new world somewhere they call the Promised Land;
And I’ll be there someday if you will hold my hand;
I still need you there beside me, no matter what I do;
For I know I’ll never find another you.

There is always someone for each of us they say,
And you’ll be my someone, forever and a day;
I could search the whole world over, until my life is through,
But I know I’ll never find another you.

It’s a long, long journey, so stay by my side,
If I walk through a storm, you’ll be my guide, Be my guide...

If they gave me a fortune, my treasure would be small;
I could lose it all tomorrow, and never mind at all;
But if I should lose your love, dear, I don’t know what I’d do,
For I know I’ll never find another you!

Sam Adams with Blooming Onion

Did you know they serve Sam Adams at Outback Steakhouse? Well, now you do! A bottle of classic Sam Adams toasted over Blooming Onion is something I'd die for! Oh, and they give you free dessert if you pay with a UOB card! Though I'd rather have a discount instead 'cos there's no way you can finish all that food..... Outback used to be rather quiet with dim lighting, quite a romantic location. But business is booming now, more noise and even a line outside! But Blooming Onion still tastes as good, and the company makes it even better I guess ;) !

Had a late night out at Butter Factory. This place is really in the middle of nowhere. You tell the cab driver you wanna go to Butter Factory and he might send you to the Tuas industrial estate! You tell him you want to go to Robertson Quay most probably he will drop you at some condo or hotel in the neighbourhood and you got to find your own way there. Robertson Quay was supposed to be the next "happening" place in town, but it's pretty dark and half the world doesn't know where it is.... Still, I had a great time though! I didn't know R could groove so well to hip hop! Somebody really got it moving huh? Somehow the crowd didn't dress very hip hop. I saw a lot of the "scholarly" crowd who were dressed in work attire. And some Ah Lians but dressed in classy (ballroom?) attire! What happened to baggy pants, caps and chains? Even J was not in his classic funky get go! And hardly anyone smoked! A surreal hip hop experience.....

Denise Richards, aka fish lips, from Wild Things. Remember her? Well, she threw a laptop at the papparazzi but it landed on an elderly disabled woman instead! Bummer!

Democrats have won control of both the house and senate! Okay, they don't exactly control the senate outright, but who cares? Victory for mankind? Possibly....

In other news, the LTA is giving a huge discount on ERP rates during the festive season. Now I take big offence at this. Didn't the minister just say that too many people are driving and it is congesting up the city? Especially during the festive season when people are driving everywhere and clogging up the city center, that's when you should double the ERP rates and encourage public transport! Okay, some people who drive are gonna shoot me...... Anyways, Orchard Road and the City Hall area are gonna be very very congested come Christmas! So they say they want to encourage shopping, tourism etc. Maybe waive the ERP for taxis, but not for cars???

Fat free? Maybe not...

I just watched the documentary of the week on channel news asia. This week's topic was on dieting. According to a noted professor, fat-free foods attain their fat-free status by substituting fat with carbohydrates. And many of these fat-free foods actually have the same amount of calories in the form of carbohydrates that their non-fat-free cousins have in the form of fats (e.g. fat-free oreos and fat-free ice cream)! Which means that you are not gonna lose ANY weight at all eating these fat-free foods! What's more, fats actually make you feel full, but carbohydrates make your body produce more insulin which makes you feel hungry, and thus you end up eating more. So eating fat-free food actually makes you eat more and gain more weight!! When I was in the US some girls told me they feel disgusted when they saw me drinking whole milk. Guess what? They probably gained more weight than me by drinking non-fat milk!

So whats the best way to lose weight? Eat in moderation and exercise the equivalent of walking 10,000 steps a day. Now, thats a lot! I think most office workers barely manage 1000, so I guess we have to hit the gym to make up for the lack of exercise!

In other news, Saddam Hussein has just been sentenced to death by hanging.....

Global warming

Finally back from reservist! Doesn't it feel great to be a civilian again? Ok lah, this round of ICT was not that tough. We were doing ATEC 1 which is basically individual proficiency testing, so no outfield exercise. And I wasn't tested. I got poked twice this week tough, which brings it to a total of being poked 3 times with a 16 gauge needle in 2 and a half weeks! If you know how big a 16 gauge is you'd probably faint.....

Went to Vivocity last night to watch An Inconvenient Truth with some friends. One guy observed that I was talking in Army lingo, I guess it will take a few days for my civilian conversion course haha! The movie was quite interesting, but seriously I'd like to hear more than just Al Gore talking. He's a good talker, but still, $9.50 to hear one person talk?!! I think Michael Moore is more interesting though he is probably a lot more biased. Did I learn a lot more from Al Gore's speech? Not really. Is he scientific enough? Definitely not, because he totally did not talk very much about the skeptics scientific point of view. Zero citations disagreeing with global warming in his sample of papers. But there are indeed papers out there that disagree with global warming, he just didn't dig hard enough. Read Michael Crichton's book (forgot the name) to find references. Like all politicians, he's really just using his charm to present the facts. Oh and not to mention the entire movie is a big Apple advertisement!!

We all noticed some mismatch between the crowd and the stores at vivocity. The crowd is largely a family crowd, lots of uncles aunties and their kids, making A LOT of noise! But the stores are largely upmarket boutiques, which cater to the hip and well-heeled. I suppose those well-heeled shoppers wouldn't want to squeeze with the sweating heartlanders with kids in tow. And not to mention that the first floor has a huge atrium which attracts numerous shoppers, but once u go up the escalator the aisles are tiny, and you literally have to squeeze to get from one point to another. I've never seen any mall with such small walkways, other than beach road Army Market!! Poorly designed indeed. But I guess the crowd is coming, so its a success. But are they spending enough to cover the cost of developing this sprawling complex?

Back to global warming. Gore says that the world population is too large, becoming unsustainable. However, many rich countries in europe and asia are shunning immigration and encouraging people to have more and more kids. And these are precisely the countries who are most aware of the global warming problem. I guess it's all going downhill......

I'd vote Obama

I just read this cool quote in The Economist:
"Why is Bush acting like he trying to get Osama? Why don't we impeach him and elect Obama?"

I don't wanna lead an army life

We only got to book out of camp at 7pm today. Not to mention that camp is in the middle of nowhere and we have to come back in tomorrow night. And I have to go down to beach road army market to get my ID tag tomorrow, so basically I don't have a weekend which totally sucks. Is it me or is this worse than active NSF days? I suppose I won't be compensated for the extra time spent in camp on weekends.....

Good news though is that I passed my IPPT fitness test again this week (although barely). Which means I don't have to take the test again till my next window closes in august 2008, which is a really long time away heheheh!

Whats up for the next week? More card playing (I'm a dai dee expert now), more mosquitos (hopefully more mosquito coils will counter that), more poking (hopefully I won't get poked), more cursing, less nights off, and hopefully it will be all over soon enough. For once I actually think I'd like to get back to the office!

NAB for the "has been" crowd....

So there was this famous UK DJ in town recently and he was playing progessive at New Asia Bar. Except that the New Asia crowd only wants hip hop and R&B and didn't like his music so they kept booing him and shouting for song change until he got real pissed off and told them to go jerk off (or something like that). And then he left early. The NAB management says it was stated clearly on the posters, flyers etc that this DJ would be playing progressive and so they couldn't do anything.

My take:
1) DJ has to take some blame. Foreign talent or not, he has no right to shout at the customers. After all he is a freaking guest, its not even his club, so go on back to UK and don't come back again! We don't want you here! I've organised events before where the crowds didn't like the DJ. DJ's only choice is to reflect to the management, DJ's don't scold the crowd. But of course we have a case of an arrogant Brit who thinks he can do what he wants. Try doing that in UK, shouting at the half drunk crowd! Or even in USA! You'd probably not make it home alive! Trust me, I've seen what a mad drunk crowd can do to you.....

2) The crowd should just go on home if they hate the music. What absolute losers booing the DJ like that. I mean, take a hike, the posters and flyers said it was progressive night, so just shut up and dance! It's not like the famous UK DJ would have any R&B and hip hop on him, he can't change the music you idiots! Not to mention the NAB crowd is mostly executives and bankers, so the DJ was right to cuss at them that hip hop and R&B is so out for this class of people! Hip hop and R&B for an executive (mostly chinese) crowd wearing their nice business shirts? Hello, wake up to the 21st century!!! Oh I forgot, these are the same people who were grooving to Mambo Jumbo just a few years ago when they were in college...... It reminds me of the 3 well-heeled girls who were in the middle of Zouk dancefloor on New Year's eve covering their ears. They paid 28 bucks to be seen in the "happening crowd" but had no idea who was playing or what trance is all about, despite the big signs outside advertising one of the top 10 trance DJ's. It's people like this who would end up booing the DJ, what LOSERS!

3) Obviously NAB management is the most at fault here. The events manager should just be fired. I mean, after all these years he should know that NAB crowd only listens to hip hop and R&B (and perhaps Mambo? haha). Despite that he is probably a little more educated in what executives should be grooving too, there's no mistake that NAB totally screwed it up by pairing a progressive DJ with a hip hop crowd, double thumbs down to that. Zouk would never bring on Armin Van Buuren on a Wednesday night! Otherwise those 18 year old "yo-ah, yo-ah" would be totally freaked out and maybe start fighting hahahaha......

You know what? This entire incident reflects on the state of the country right now. Perhaps the report could be the "state of the union" address haha! In one corner we have the arrogant foreign talents trying to tell everyone what to do, while pissing everybody else off even though they are way way overpaid. In the other corner we have the ugly Singaporean. While in the 3rd corner we have the people who brought both sides together, never really figured out how to manage them, and ended up in one whole big mess.

What a wonderful world isn't it?

Sleep eat sleep

They say that when you wear green you can sleep anytime, anywhere. I used to think that only referred to the 18 year old youngsters who haven't found any meaning in life. I was wrong. Reservists also sleep anytime, anywhere. In fact, they sleep everytime, everywhere! Any canteen break, lunch break or even toilet break, you will find them lying down on the benches, on the floor, on the kerb, everywhere!

So what's this obsession with sleeping? Are they really that tired from staying up all night? We spend most of the time doing nothing productive anyway, so they can't be tired from the activities..... Well, firstly, the uniform makes you freaking hot and lethargic in this weather, I'd rather be wearing a t-shirt anytime. Not to mention that most of the waiting is done in non-air-conditioned environments. And I'd suppose there isn't really anything else to do! The first day everyone is excited catching up with each other and trading stories. But by the second day everyone is sick of seeing each other and wearing the uncomfortable uniform so they are all just lying around everywhere waiting to go home! They say that soldiers "wait to rush, rush to wait". Well, reservists "wait to wait, then they wait some more"!

I suppose some are anticipating that life is going to be a living hell when we start jungle training next week, so better rest now. And better bulk up too, everyone's been eating more than usual, including myself. But I suppose you can't be just eating all day, so eat and sleep for now.....

I just saw Wan Xin Ling performing in a variety show on Channel U just now. Did you see those dance moves while she was doing the song Da Da Da? That footwork was so awesome man! Wow, what an amazing performance, and nice song too! I wonder if she has any other nice songs? Sometimes with a performance like that, you can't really tell the talent of the artiste by listening on the radio. I mean, there wasn't much theatrics and stuff (not like Snoop Dog MTV), just pure legwork and singing. Just pure skill!

reservist

Today was my first day back in reservist after 6 years! You probably guessed it right, the pants hardly fit, and I've lost most of the small items that we are supposed to bring.... Probably have to make a few more trips to the gift shop.

We spent half the day learning CPR and the other half poking each other. And I mean poking literally with a needle, the most traumatic thing ever!!! I can't believe we had to go through all this pain again, relive the wost nightmares in 6 years. And to think the newer kids use the smaller needles, argh!!

In between lessons and stuff, its really just idle. Just sit around in the hot, stuffy and hazy training shed, just wasting your life away. I guess the saying wait to rush, rush to wait comes true again.

For half the people there, after this they will go back to their lobo units and sit at the front desk. For my group of people though, its chiong swa chiong hai (rush up the mountain and into the sea) next week. It's only just begun but I can't wait for this to be over!!

FMC

I just read in The Economist that the next big thing in telephone technology is Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC). Basically you use your cell phone as it is when you are outdoors, but when u get home within range of your home base, it switches to a fixed line using broadband lines, while u get to use yr cell phone and the same number. How cool is that! And when your friends visit your house, they get to enjoy using the fixed line too, but they will be billed individually at fixed line rates!

I wonder when this service is going to come up in Singapore? I read that 3G was a total flop in Europe a few years back, yet they still went ahead and implemented it here, but only recently. And as far as I know, it isn't doing very well here.... Maybe the operators don't have enough capital to venture into FMC after all this, who knows? Or maybe there'll be new players in the market.....

Recent article in today paper

Look elsewhere, doc

Contrary to popular belief, having a PhD won't guarantee work in life science research

Letter from Peter Song

I REFER to your report, "The life sciences conundrum" (Oct 9).

I studied civil engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Then, with so much hype being created about the future of life sciences, and with the civil engineering industry in the sunset stage, I took a shot at being retrained for the life sciences. I got a scholarship to do an NUS PhD programme in bioengineering.

I stopped after three years on my own accord, deciding to graduate with a Masters degree instead. Contrary to what some have said, a PhD will not get you a research position in Singapore.

I learnt this the hard way.

Firstly, a PhD is very specialised and most students learn only within a small sub-field governed by their thesis' area of research. So, when the student graduates, he is considered experienced only in that small area of science.

He thus loses all chance of working in any life science research position — even a junior post, as he is over-qualified. He will likely have to find a post-doctoral position in the department from which he obtained his PhD. But his supervisor may not have the grant money to employ him.

This lack, despite the Government's generous funding, has to do with the research environment at the university, which views students as the main source of manpower.

When PhD students graduate, the professor simply gets another group of students to continue the research. The students are paid a stipend from another department in charge of scholarships; effectively, the students come free to the professor because the grant money isn't used to pay them.

For grant approval, the professor competes on quality of ideas, commercial potential of ideas and estimated cost of research. All things being equal, the professor who quotes the least amount is given priority.

So, the PhD holder has one last option for employment: A*Star's research institutes and private sector research firms. But A*Star seeks out researchers who are experienced and have good track records. The private sector also requires people with a specific set of experience. And, unless their thesis is related, fresh PhD graduates do not have a chance.

Finally, A*Star scholars, due to their bonds, can start as fresh PhD graduates in its research institutes. The moral of the story? If you want to work in life science research, you must be an A*Star scholar; a PhD from elsewhere in Singapore would be useless.

Vivo vivo

I went to Vivocity yesterday. It wasn't really planned but F and her husband were visiting from the US and M and I were gonna meet up with them but rather late at night, so we had to eat and do something first. Vivocity has a direct bus from my office, so we decided to check it out.

The first thing that hits you when you get out of the harbourfront mrt underpass is that there are 2 gigantic foodcourts right in front of you! One kopitiam and one banquet. They are right next to each other but there are some barriers to keep people from moving between them, which we thought was quite weird. Until I realised that one is Halal and the other is not, make a guess which is which....

The rest of vivocity is really a bummer. More than half the shops aren't open yet, so much for the grand opening. Outside, the concrete for the sidewalks have not been cast, and my visitors who passed by the place earlier in the day thought it was a construction site. There was all this hype about new stores that you cant find anywhere else in Singapore, and the management said they didn't want to reveal what these were before opening day except that the first ever Gap store is here. Guess what? You guessed it, Gap is the ONLY new store in this mall! Everything else is "been there, seen that". And the Gap store is half the size of the one in Berkeley (not as if Berkeley is a very big town)!

Probably the only consolation is there is a Esprit (edc) outlet which has menswear. There are only 2 others that I know of (Raffles city and orchard). The designs at each one of the outlets are completely different. I suspect from different countries since the Espirit label is designed all over the world? The price tag was pretty steep though, 80 bucks for a short sleeve shirt. Shouldn't they have opening sales? I didn't see anyone in the store.

Really the only place which seems to be generating revenue is the foodcourt. Theres another food court on the top floor too but we didn't have time to go up there. Alongside the largest GV I suppose. Everywhere else there are people walking around, but not really purchasing anything. I suppose that's because there's nothing really new in Vivocity.

Overall: Thumbs down, been there, seen that......